Sonny Rollins

After his 1949 Blue Note appearance with Bud Powell’s Modernists, Sonny Rollins established himself as a bandleader with a series of albums for Prestige. He returned to Blue Note in 1956 to make his debut as a leader with Volume 1, a quintessential Rollins session featuring four swinging originals and his bold sound and inventive improvisation. The stellar quintet brings together Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and Max Roach on drums. At the album’s heart is Rollins’s captivating take on the unexpected ballad “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” from the Broadway musical Finian’s Rainbow.